Methodology

In order to determine the best outdoor states in America, our analysts compared the 50 states across 14 relevant metrics.

The raw numbers for each metric were used, so nowhere did we evaluate things based on our subjective opinions.

We avoided evaluating things based on our subjective opinions, so the results didn’t get affected by our own adventures in America, our own opinions about the nature in each state, etc.

Most other rankings of the best outdoor areas in America are based on subjective opinions. This isn’t fair since a small group of analysts cannot possible have a correct impression of the outdoor possibilities in each and every part of the country.

To get the total score for each state, we calculated the weighted sum of the raw numbers for 12 of the metrics (the last 2 of the 14 metrics were used in the final multiplication below).

Finally, we multiplied the weighted sum with percentages from the last 2 metrics (outdoor participation rate and physical inactivity rate).

Metrics and Sources

The following metrics were used to calculated the weighted sums:

Percentage of land with protected area status (GAP status): Quadruple weight (~28.5%).

Based on data from USGS. GAP status 1 counts 4 times as much as GAP status 3. GAP status 2 counts twice as much as GAP status 3.